Update on Jim - 4/7/10

Jim had his last full chemo day on Monday 4/5. It went very well! The nurses have a little "good-bye" they do in the chemo room. It includes a kazoo and a mini ukulele, plus bubbles and singing! They have a little good bye song that they sang and gave him a certificate of "completion". It was quite cute and made the last full day momentous!

So here is what the doctor told us at the appointment. Jim will have a Pet/CT scan scheduled for the last week of April. Then on May 3rd he sees the doctor again, gets the results of the scans and then has his final spinal infusion. So instead of an all-day appointment, it will take a whopping hour or so and that is it. Of course, he'll still have to follow the spinal infusion with 4 hours of laying prone, but that is okay!

I asked the doc if Jim would be seeing her for annual visits and she responded he would be coming in on a quarterly basis for quite awhile. She wants to monitor him closely for several years. That is okay with us - we don't want any repeat performances!

The day after chemo has usually been a good day and yesterday was no exception. Jim did have some interrupted sleep last night and his stomach is starting to feel a bit off, but other then that he is doing alright. There is no way to guess how he'll feel after chemo since each time is different. I mentioned to him this a.m. that he is going into this chemo week, the strongest he has ever been. He has a solid week of good sleep, good eating and generally feeling good prior to this chemo treatment. Hopefully it won't knock him down to bad this time.

Please continue to pray that the side effects will be minimal this go round. The next 4 or 5 days are usually when he has problems. We need him to have a good appetite and to get good sleep so he doesn't get worn down. Thank you in advance for your prayers! We continue to pray for all of you and your personal concerns.